Tech: Twitter Facing Discrimination Lawsuit

It seems that life may not always be sweeter in the birdhouse. Twitter is the most recent company facing a gender equality lawsuit. A female software engineer, Tina Huang, has alleged that Twitter has a secret and highly gendered promotion policy that favors men. This lawsuit comes at a time when gender fairness in tech companies is at a forefront. The tech industry is dominated by men: on average, 70 percent of employees in tech companies are white males. The lawsuit alleges that Twitter’s promotional processes are tainted by gender biases, “Promotion into Twitter’s senior technical positions is based on subjective judgments, by committees that are comprised of and dependent on upper management at Twitter, and predominantly male,” according to the lawsuit. Twitter responded to the claim, “Ms. Huang resigned voluntarily from Twitter, after our leadership tried to persuade her to stay. She was not fired.Twitter is deeply committed to a diverse and supportive workplace, and we believe the facts will show Ms. Huang was treated fairly.” Huang is encouraging any female employees at Twitter to come forward with complaints of their own.